Exclusive: Dr Pratyush Kumar, CEO, Sarvam AI

In an exclusive interview with Business Today’s Siddharth Zarabi at the AI Impact Summit at Bharat Mandapam, Dr. Pratyush Kumar, co-founder of Sarvam AI, discussed India’s milestone in developing its first sovereign Large Language Model (LLM). Kumar emphasised that India must build its own technology rather than relying on global monopolies, stating, ‘India should be building its own thing’ to ensure AI serves as a public good. He highlighted how Sarvam AI achieved resource-efficient ‘frugal engineering’ to train competitive models at a fraction of the typical cost. Kumar revealed that a consumer chatbot app will launch within days, supporting voice-first interactions in Indian languages to bridge the digital divide. Additionally, he announced that Sarvam AI is developing India-designed smart glasses to provide mobile access to AI intelligence. The interview underscores India’s shift from being an AI consumer to a global creator, focusing on population-scale accessibility through voice enablement and deep tech innovation.